Washington Wildflower Hikes. Nathan Barnes

21.Walt Bailey Trail

       22.Glacier Basin

       23.Scorpion Mountain

       24.Alpine Lookout

       25.Icicle Ridge

       26.Mount Defiance

       27.Lodge Lake

       28.Esmeralda Basin

       29.Tronsen Ridge

       Mount Rainier & South Cascades

       30.Spray Park and Spray Falls

       31.Grand Park

       32.Fremont Lookout

       33.Tipsoo Lake and Naches Peak Loop

       34.Van Trump Park

       35.Paradise Meadows Loop

       36.South Coldwater Trail

       37.Johnston Ridge

       38.Norway Pass and Mount Margaret

       39.Tongue Mountain

       40.Snowgrass Flat

       41.Killen Creek Meadow

       42.Dog Mountain

       43.Columbia Hills

       Eastern Washington

       44.Umtanum Creek Canyon

       45.Rattlesnake Slope

       46.Hanford Reach and White Bluffs

       47.Ancient Lakes and Potholes Coulee

       48.Steamboat Rock

       49.Little Spokane River Natural Area

       50.Dishman Hills Conservation Area

       Acknowledgments

       Appendix: Managing Agencies

       References

       Index

       Cloud-clad Mount Rainier rises above the Naches Loop Trail (Hike 33).

      HIKES AT A GLANCE

       Beargrass-lined trail on the shoulders of Mount Defiance (Hike 26)

      INTRODUCTION

       Wildflowers are the jewels of the trail, a splash of decorative color that pops against spring-green underbrush or sandy desert scrubland. These trailside beauties attract interested hikers and backpackers as easily as they do bees, birds, and other pollinators. Wildflowers offer you a great reason to pause, catch your breath, and deepen your connection with nature. Learning to identify plants and flowers was part of our hiking experience growing up and continues to enhance our trips to this day.

      Hikers seeking a trail through fields of wildflowers are fortunate when hiking in Washington State, as our diverse environments are home to a wide variety of wildflowers that bloom at different times throughout the year. From Puget Sound lowlands to alpine passes to rolling desert scrublands, hikers can find flowers blooming from early spring to fall. Different ecological environments are home to different plants, and some hikes travel through multiple areas, which means that hikers can, for example, find water-loving calypso orchids in the lowland forests of a hike, then climb up into rocky alpine zones covered in phlox and heather.

      While we’ve spent a great deal of time learning a lot about plants and flowers we’ve come across while exploring trails across the state, we are not experts. We are not botanists or biologists, and we have no formal training in these areas. Instead, we consider ourselves wildflower enthusiasts who enjoy the color and variety of the many, many wildflowers and flowering shrubs found in Washington. As a result, this book is not a technical manual for serious flowerhounds: You will not find extremely detailed specifications of wildflowers, plant descriptions filled with dense botanical terminology, or strict parsing of whether a particular flower is a weed, a wildflower, or a shrub. We leave that level of detail and assessment to more serious guides authored by experts in their field.